The Army and Marines have fielded more than 4,000 Polaroid camera-sized biometric detection devices that scan, track and identify potential terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, service and industry officials said.
U.S. forces use the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment, or HIIDE, devices during neighborhood patrols. The camera scans fingerprints or irises in an effort to find insurgents.
The devices connect to a remote Defense Department database called the Automated Biometric Information System, which gathers identification data from U.S. and coalition partners.
The HIIDEs are part of an Army and Marine Corps effort to improve the collection and use of biometric identification data. In December, a DoD and Army task force issued a three-year contract called Biometrics Operations and Support Services-Unrestricted. The contract, worth $479 million, allows 12 firms to compete to handle a variety of biometric-related tasks, missions and functions.
Biometrics technologies are already affecting deployed forces, said retired Vice Adm. Albert Calland, CACI's executive vice president for integrated security and intelligence. "If you go into a house in Iraq and Afghanistan, you need to be able to find out who is who," Calland said. "You may have a latent fingerprint from an IED - maybe their fingerprint matches someone?"
Detainees' fingerprints and iris scans are checked against databases that contain the biometric identities of bomb builders and terrorists. There have been numerous matches.
The devices have already proven valuable, enabling U.S. troops to catch more than 400 "high-value individuals" in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.
"We've been very successful at catching bad guys," said Lisa Swan, who is deputy director of the U.S. Army's Biometric Task Force.
Biometric checks have also identified insurgents among the applicants for admission to the Iraqi Police Academy, the Biometrics Task Force reports. They have also turned up Iraqis who have U.S. felony records.
Fingerprints lifted from bomb fragments and ambush sites are added to the database in the hope that some day they will match with prints of suspects in custody.
U.S. troops have ordered Iraqi men, women and children out of their villages and recorded their fingerprints and iris images before letting them return. "It has proven to reduce violence," Swan said. "It keeps the bad guys out."
"The use of biometrics has clearly thwarted security breaches and helped prevent unwanted activities by the enemy," the task force asserts.
"Some [vendors] will be building next-generation systems, and some will be staff augmentation, consulting and strategic support," said Mike Stango, the senior project manager for biometrics with CACI International, one of the 12 firms.
The others are American Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cogent, Computer Sciences, Electronic Data Systems, Ideal Innovations, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, SAIC and Telos.
"Also, it is vital to be able to ensure that if you do detain or hold somebody - whether it is a raid or checkpoint - that you start to develop a database. It is absolutely vital," he said.
Researchers also are looking to gather identifying data from more body parts, Stango said.
"In the future, there will be palm, DNA, partial hands and any additional touch points used to help in providing the overall picture of who someone is," he said.
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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